So...the """"plot"""" (spoilers ahead)

[WithoutWarning]

What a complete let down. The first act had me all in wonder, eyes and ears, yea...we're going on an adventure with Ku and spend time together. We'll get back together after the crash and...Ku's dead and just like the first one we're going to bring them back to life.

After the first act the story is basically a ctrl+c and ctrl+v of the first game's story. Go trotting all over the place to ultimately end up saving this forest. I guess Moon couldn't make a better track than 'Ginso Tree Escape'? Though in all honesty it's hard to top what is already perfection.

Don't get me wrong the gameplay is fantastic and an improvement but I can't help but feel like there were some development troubles. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some cut story sections where Ku and Ori would fight enemies together and if there were some cut Ku abilities that simply didn't work.

And don't get me started on the ending, that alone makes me amd...

[DOJI6AHYTbIU]

My vision of the ending and partially the plot of the game(and not only).
The game was completed in a hurry and perhaps the developers themselves were customized by Microsoft (I can’t say 100%, but a lot of points to this).
To begin with, what we have and what looks extremely strange and not logical.
1. The scene where Shriek separates Ori and Ku, and after Ori finds Ku "dead."
The scene itself is a cliffhanger where Shriek puts his “bone-wing” over the ku and the scene goes black, which does not give us an clear answer to what exactly happened (I do not think that this move was used to reduce the cruelty of the scene). Usually, cliffhanger is revealed much later than what was done here, because the longer the wait, the stronger the pay off will be. But here we are immediately shown the consequences (which again is not very reasonable).
2. The final scene of Shriek after a fight with Ori.
Absolutely does not make any sense in the installation solution and I think that initially this scene was planned elsewhere (specifically the scene where Shriek flies to his "home" and crawls under the wing of his parents).
Now I want to analyze these points in more detail (and add a couple more things).
 Let's start from point 1: We take into account the history of Shriek and remember that adult owls “injured her” while their children showed good interest in her. Therefore, it would be more logical after cliffhanger if Sriek did not “kill” Ku, but began to show interest in and “protect” her. When Ori appears, she sees in him, and especially in Seir, a threat (every boss of the game tried in one way or another to “kill Seir” under the influence of “something.” Cloak tried to “eat” him with his tongue, one of the clear examples of this). A fight would begin between Ori and Shriek in which Shriek hit Ku with a blow, which is why she would be on the verge of death.
Point 2: After we have gathered all the power of Seir in the hunting grounds, we again meet Shriek. Where are we trying to give her the warmth that she once sought. But she is too afraid of it and flies away. But she flies away precisely to the grave of her parents (a scene from the ending). Because she wanted it warmly, but was afraid to accept it, so her intactive action to combat stress was just comforting herself under the wing of her parents. This moment for this particular scene looks much more logical and truthful in terms of installation. After all, if you think about where she is now, you understand that she just looks stupid and pointless (except that she squeezes the tears from us). Seriously, Shriek is fighting with us at the new tree, full of determination and fighting with all his might. And after losing, for some reason, she decides to fly to her home under the wing of her parents? Just this moment looks more organic after she rejected the warmth and kindness of Ori.
After the final fight, Ori, exhausted, goes to Seir, and Shriek wakes up below (there is this moment in the final cutscene). The fight would take place not just because it is the last boss, but because of Shriek’s motivation to prevent the tree from rejoicing (because if the tree rejoicing the whole cycle will happen sooner or later and there will be another such tragedy, therefore, it considers it better to leave everything as it is and plunge into "darkness"). In the final, it’s Shriek who sacrifices herself because she wants to atone for Ku and repay good to both her and Ori (because he took the first step). "She was born an ugly duckling, but died a beautiful swan" (Or partly as a legend about the phoenix - was born from the ashes that would then die and be reborn again). The tree would be sprouted either in the center of the same village we were tearing off, or the new village would be next to this tree. This would be the logical development and end of the Shriek Arch. She still “received and returned” warmth and now (albeit in a different form), but she is not alone.
I understand that it sounds pretty cloying, but this is really a logical order of events. Tears at the end will be justified and will make sense.
Why does such an ending make sense? Throughout the history of the game is the idea of ​​a family (Kwolok is the "father for the limurs," the Spider and her children, the Ori family). At the same time, the Ori family is a family of members that are the last of its kind (Ku is the last of the owls, Naru is the last of its kind, Gumo is also the last of its kind (shown in the first part), Ori is the last of the spirits on this island)). Shriek fits perfectly into the concept of this family, as it is the last representative of owls on the new island, which is also deformed (which makes it unique in its kind).
Why could Shriek sacrifice herself? She survived after the collapse and was born unique, it could have been beaten in the course of history, that one way or another she has either the ability or part of her strength from the old tree. Moreover, she has allegedly “tentacles” on the bone wings that are clearly visible in the first half of the game (until she begins to appear in well-lit places, because it turns out that these are supposedly bones, but their flexibility and movement are different from what we saw initially). These "tentacles" could explain the appearance of the monster in the mill (which would then take control of Cloak and also the spider, because she had small tentacle worms all over her body). This would show how much Shriek is trying to prevent the objection of the tree.You can also add a certain symbolism that Shriek has 2 horns, and the willow has exactly 2 crowns.
 Also, if Shriek sacrifices himself, then in the end we would see the interaction and growing Ku and Ori together (against the background of a new tree), which would at least somehow alleviate the problem of their small joint screen time.
 If you delve into the new gameplay mechanics and at the same time the ENT of the game, then a lot of new problems arise.
 According to the plot, it is also not clear why the "limurs" did not make friends with Shriek (given the distance she covered on her way "there and back"). We are even shown them on the way back, but they are inactive (although they are presented as extremely friendly and positive characters in the game). Most likely they did it for the sake of drama (since the Shriek story is currently a drama for the sake of drama, nothing more).
 So back to the mechanics.
 In the first game, the developers said - says David Clark, a core programmer of Ori and the Blind Forest. "Having Sein lock onto the enemies and shoot the flames worked nicely because it made this nice separation - Ori is trying to run from everything, Sein is doing the attacking." This emphasizes well that Ori is just a spirit and not a killing machine We received our abilities “from the graves” of previous spirits with a brief description of their background.
In the new game, we simply find a blue tree (which purely on the visual component refers us to the first game and we understand that this is an upgrade) and we immediately get a “spiritual sword”. This almost completely breaks the lore of both the first part and the second. In the first part (as I have already given the example above), all the fighting abilities go to Sein (since she is "part of the tree") and without him we cannot use them. In the Will of the Wisps we use a sword, bow, hammer, etc. (without taking into account when in general the spirit that only “ran and jumped” the whole previous part managed to master these techniques in mastery) without any assistant (Seir we find only further in the game and he does absolutely nothing, except for collecting the remaining fragments of the tree). It turns out that Ori can use all abilities without the help of the spirit? Why also in the first part of Ori died at the very beginning of the game from the fact that the tree was bad, and in the second part on the new island, far from his native tree and next to the new dead tree, he was in excellent condition? And with all this, can he interact with him (that is, resurrect him)?
 I have no claims to the gameplay itself, it’s good. But the innovations do not look organically with the lore of the first game, and they are not explained in this.
 The plot is the same game on the head or even 2 weaker than its predecessor.
 Why do I think that this game was completed in a hurry (a good game needed another year or 2 for a complete and adequate implementation of the story and characters)? In the near future, Xbox Series X should be released, where Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 will be the starting game, while for this period (1-2 years) you should howl cyberpunk 2077 and hollow knight silksong, which are absolutely serious competitors for Ori. Releasing Ori to the Xbox Series X with Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is also not the most logical decision in terms of monetary gain. We recall the cliffhegger from point 1. We add point 2 to it. We look at how many flaws and bugs we have at this moment (in some screensavers, you can see that the background and characters are rather poorly coded together). We also take into account that moon studios is an “indie studio” (since Ori is an indie game, which is undoubtedly very beautiful, but still it is indie). We conclude that it is simply not profitable for Microsoft to allocate money for the completion of the indie project for another 2 years, because they are preparing to release a new box and remember the wild competition in the market with the further release of the game. This situation looks wildly logical and plausible (which scares). These are just my guesses with the conclusions, and if I am mistaken and the Ori was made exactly as it was originally planned, then for me it is even worse.Because it’s hard for me to believe that the studio that created the beautiful anti-hero Kura with her good full story and redemption (which still makes sense and is justified) gives us such an inferior Shriek. This is very cruel. Not so much in the planets of inferiority, namely in the cotext of the history of Shriek itself. After all, it turns out that she was born in complete solitude, was rejected by old owls (the "limurs" did not help her BECAUSE THE PLOT). Kills Ku (again, BECAUSE THE STORY). Loses the fight with Ori and flies away to die under the wing of his parents. This is too cruel a story, which in its essence gives and does nothing in the game, except for squeezing cheap tears from the players (which makes it even worse). And in a hurry, they simply collected all the developments on the plot, which were already ready and brought them together.It looks as if in a hurry they simply collected all the developments on the plot that were ready ( especially cutscenes ) and put them together.
P.s I apologize for bad English, but I think that I could provide general information correctly.

[WithoutWarning]

Originally posted by DOJI6AHYTbIU:

My vision of the ending and partially the plot of the game(and not only).
The game was completed in a hurry and perhaps the developers themselves were customized by Microsoft (I can’t say 100%, but a lot of points to this).
To begin with, what we have and what looks extremely strange and not logical.
1. The scene where Shriek separates Ori and Ku, and after Ori finds Ku "dead."
The scene itself is a cliffhanger where Shriek puts his “bone-wing” over the ku and the scene goes black, which does not give us an clear answer to what exactly happened (I do not think that this move was used to reduce the cruelty of the scene). Usually, cliffhanger is revealed much later than what was done here, because the longer the wait, the stronger the pay off will be. But here we are immediately shown the consequences (which again is not very reasonable).
2. The final scene of Shriek after a fight with Ori.
Absolutely does not make any sense in the installation solution and I think that initially this scene was planned elsewhere (specifically the scene where Shriek flies to his "home" and crawls under the wing of his parents).
Now I want to analyze these points in more detail (and add a couple more things).
 Let's start from point 1: We take into account the history of Shriek and remember that adult owls “injured her” while their children showed good interest in her. Therefore, it would be more logical after cliffhanger if Sriek did not “kill” Ku, but began to show interest in and “protect” her. When Ori appears, she sees in him, and especially in Seir, a threat (every boss of the game tried in one way or another to “kill Seir” under the influence of “something.” Cloak tried to “eat” him with his tongue, one of the clear examples of this). A fight would begin between Ori and Shriek in which Shriek hit Ku with a blow, which is why she would be on the verge of death.
Point 2: After we have gathered all the power of Seir in the hunting grounds, we again meet Shriek. Where are we trying to give her the warmth that she once sought. But she is too afraid of it and flies away. But she flies away precisely to the grave of her parents (a scene from the ending). Because she wanted it warmly, but was afraid to accept it, so her intactive action to combat stress was just comforting herself under the wing of her parents. This moment for this particular scene looks much more logical and truthful in terms of installation. After all, if you think about where she is now, you understand that she just looks stupid and pointless (except that she squeezes the tears from us). Seriously, Shriek is fighting with us at the new tree, full of determination and fighting with all his might. And after losing, for some reason, she decides to fly to her home under the wing of her parents? Just this moment looks more organic after she rejected the warmth and kindness of Ori.
After the final fight, Ori, exhausted, goes to Seir, and Shriek wakes up below (there is this moment in the final cutscene). The fight would take place not just because it is the last boss, but because of Shriek’s motivation to prevent the tree from rejoicing (because if the tree rejoicing the whole cycle will happen sooner or later and there will be another such tragedy, therefore, it considers it better to leave everything as it is and plunge into "darkness"). In the final, it’s Shriek who sacrifices herself because she wants to atone for Ku and repay good to both her and Ori (because he took the first step). "She was born an ugly duckling, but died a beautiful swan" (Or partly as a legend about the phoenix - was born from the ashes that would then die and be reborn again). The tree would be sprouted either in the center of the same village we were tearing off, or the new village would be next to this tree. This would be the logical development and end of the Shriek Arch. She still “received and returned” warmth and now (albeit in a different form), but she is not alone.
I understand that it sounds pretty cloying, but this is really a logical order of events. Tears at the end will be justified and will make sense.
Why does such an ending make sense? Throughout the history of the game is the idea of ​​a family (Kwolok is the "father for the limurs," the Spider and her children, the Ori family). At the same time, the Ori family is a family of members that are the last of its kind (Ku is the last of the owls, Naru is the last of its kind, Gumo is also the last of its kind (shown in the first part), Ori is the last of the spirits on this island)). Shriek fits perfectly into the concept of this family, as it is the last representative of owls on the new island, which is also deformed (which makes it unique in its kind).
Why could Shriek sacrifice herself? She survived after the collapse and was born unique, it could have been beaten in the course of history, that one way or another she has either the ability or part of her strength from the old tree. Moreover, she has allegedly “tentacles” on the bone wings that are clearly visible in the first half of the game (until she begins to appear in well-lit places, because it turns out that these are supposedly bones, but their flexibility and movement are different from what we saw initially). These "tentacles" could explain the appearance of the monster in the mill (which would then take control of Cloak and also the spider, because she had small tentacle worms all over her body). This would show how much Shriek is trying to prevent the objection of the tree.You can also add a certain symbolism that Shriek has 2 horns, and the willow has exactly 2 crowns.
 Also, if Shriek sacrifices himself, then in the end we would see the interaction and growing Ku and Ori together (against the background of a new tree), which would at least somehow alleviate the problem of their small joint screen time.
 If you delve into the new gameplay mechanics and at the same time the ENT of the game, then a lot of new problems arise.
 According to the plot, it is also not clear why the "limurs" did not make friends with Shriek (given the distance she covered on her way "there and back"). We are even shown them on the way back, but they are inactive (although they are presented as extremely friendly and positive characters in the game). Most likely they did it for the sake of drama (since the Shriek story is currently a drama for the sake of drama, nothing more).
 So back to the mechanics.
 In the first game, the developers said - says David Clark, a core programmer of Ori and the Blind Forest. "Having Sein lock onto the enemies and shoot the flames worked nicely because it made this nice separation - Ori is trying to run from everything, Sein is doing the attacking." This emphasizes well that Ori is just a spirit and not a killing machine We received our abilities “from the graves” of previous spirits with a brief description of their background.
In the new game, we simply find a blue tree (which purely on the visual component refers us to the first game and we understand that this is an upgrade) and we immediately get a “spiritual sword”. This almost completely breaks the lore of both the first part and the second. In the first part (as I have already given the example above), all the fighting abilities go to Sein (since she is "part of the tree") and without him we cannot use them. In the Will of the Wisps we use a sword, bow, hammer, etc. (without taking into account when in general the spirit that only “ran and jumped” the whole previous part managed to master these techniques in mastery) without any assistant (Seir we find only further in the game and he does absolutely nothing, except for collecting the remaining fragments of the tree). It turns out that Ori can use all abilities without the help of the spirit? Why also in the first part of Ori died at the very beginning of the game from the fact that the tree was bad, and in the second part on the new island, far from his native tree and next to the new dead tree, he was in excellent condition? And with all this, can he interact with him (that is, resurrect him)?
 I have no claims to the gameplay itself, it’s good. But the innovations do not look organically with the lore of the first game, and they are not explained in this.
 The plot is the same game on the head or even 2 weaker than its predecessor.
 Why do I think that this game was completed in a hurry (a good game needed another year or 2 for a complete and adequate implementation of the story and characters)? In the near future, Xbox Series X should be released, where Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 will be the starting game, while for this period (1-2 years) you should howl cyberpunk 2077 and hollow knight silksong, which are absolutely serious competitors for Ori. Releasing Ori to the Xbox Series X with Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is also not the most logical decision in terms of monetary gain. We recall the cliffhegger from point 1. We add point 2 to it. We look at how many flaws and bugs we have at this moment (in some screensavers, you can see that the background and characters are rather poorly coded together). We also take into account that moon studios is an “indie studio” (since Ori is an indie game, which is undoubtedly very beautiful, but still it is indie). We conclude that it is simply not profitable for Microsoft to allocate money for the completion of the indie project for another 2 years, because they are preparing to release a new box and remember the wild competition in the market with the further release of the game. This situation looks wildly logical and plausible (which scares). These are just my guesses with the conclusions, and if I am mistaken and the Ori was made exactly as it was originally planned, then for me it is even worse.Because it’s hard for me to believe that the studio that created the beautiful anti-hero Kura with her good full story and redemption (which still makes sense and is justified) gives us such an inferior Shriek. This is very cruel. Not so much in the planets of inferiority, namely in the cotext of the history of Shriek itself. After all, it turns out that she was born in complete solitude, was rejected by old owls (the "limurs" did not help her BECAUSE THE PLOT). Kills Ku (again, BECAUSE THE STORY). Loses the fight with Ori and flies away to die under the wing of his parents. This is too cruel a story, which in its essence gives and does nothing in the game, except for squeezing cheap tears from the players (which makes it even worse). And in a hurry, they simply collected all the developments on the plot, which were already ready and brought them together.It looks as if in a hurry they simply collected all the developments on the plot that were ready ( especially cutscenes ) and put them together.
P.s I apologize for bad English, but I think that I could provide general information correctly.

Interesting that you'd say that Shriek would sacrifice herself as that would be even more of a copy-paste of the original.

What disappoints me the most is that this story is not only majorly a copy-paste but also the fact that it's worse. Kuro's ending made sense as she realised that what she was doing was killing a child of another mother which brings her to realise what pain she would inflict if she were to kill Ori as it has already happened to her.

Meanwhile in this one the bird is pissed off because she never had friends/love from anyone, yet when Ori offers that to her she continues to be mad? What the ♥♥♥♥ is this writing?

[DOJI6AHYTbIU]

[/quote]
Interesting that you'd say that Shriek would sacrifice herself as that would be even more of a copy-paste of the original.

What disappoints me the most is that this story is not only majorly a copy-paste but also the fact that it's worse. Kuro's ending made sense as she realised that what she was doing was killing a child of another mother which brings her to realise what pain she would inflict if she were to kill Ori as it has already happened to her.

Meanwhile in this one the bird is pissed off because she never had friends/love from anyone, yet when Ori offers that to her she continues to be mad? What the ♥♥♥♥ is this writing? [/quote]

That is why I proposed the option of sacrifice Shriek by herself instead of ori (or even both of them) , but under certain circumstances, which the game does not have. Of course, this looks like an even bigger carbon copy of the first game, but here's the catch, what's better - what we have now (about 80% of the carbon copy game) with an extremely weak final and Shriek no character or go to the end and copy the self-sacrifice of "the antihero "so that the ending itself pays off not only by emotions, but also by meaning?

[WithoutWarning]

Originally posted by DOJI6AHYTbIU:

Originally posted by WithoutWarning:

Interesting that you'd say that Shriek would sacrifice herself as that would be even more of a copy-paste of the original.

What disappoints me the most is that this story is not only majorly a copy-paste but also the fact that it's worse. Kuro's ending made sense as she realised that what she was doing was killing a child of another mother which brings her to realise what pain she would inflict if she were to kill Ori as it has already happened to her.

Meanwhile in this one the bird is pissed off because she never had friends/love from anyone, yet when Ori offers that to her she continues to be mad? What the ♥♥♥♥ is this writing?

That is why I proposed the option of donating Shriek by herself instead of ori, but under certain circumstances, which the game does not have. Of course, this looks like an even bigger carbon copy of the first game, but here's the catch, what's better - what we have now (about 80% of the carbon copy game) with an extremely weak final and Shriek no character or go to the end and copy the self-sacrifice of "the antihero "so that the ending itself pays off not only by emotions, but also by meaning?

I would go for the literal copy+paste as it makes sense and fits better but I can't help but feel there was wasted opportunity with the gameplay/story that could've been done with Ori/Ku

[DOJI6AHYTbIU]

Originally posted by WithoutWarning:

Originally posted by DOJI6AHYTbIU:

That is why I proposed the option of donating Shriek by herself instead of ori, but under certain circumstances, which the game does not have. Of course, this looks like an even bigger carbon copy of the first game, but here's the catch, what's better - what we have now (about 80% of the carbon copy game) with an extremely weak final and Shriek no character or go to the end and copy the self-sacrifice of "the antihero "so that the ending itself pays off not only by emotions, but also by meaning?

I would go for the literal copy+paste as it makes sense and fits better but I can't help but feel there was wasted opportunity with the gameplay/story that could've been done with Ori/Ku

Here I agree. A lot of missed opportunities (not only with Ori and Ku). Therefore, I think that the developers were in a hurry with the release of the game and they collected what was ready and tried to somehow connect it with each other.
  It’s a very sad situation that even DLCs will not really change this, because a lot needs to be changed ...

[WithoutWarning]

Originally posted by DOJI6AHYTbIU:

Originally posted by WithoutWarning:

I would go for the literal copy+paste as it makes sense and fits better but I can't help but feel there was wasted opportunity with the gameplay/story that could've been done with Ori/Ku

Here I agree. A lot of missed opportunities (not only with Ori and Ku). Therefore, I think that the developers were in a hurry with the release of the game and they collected what was ready and tried to somehow connect it with each other.
  It’s a very sad situation that even DLCs will not really change this, because a lot needs to be changed ...

How many times was it delayed again?

I remember it being shown in E3 2017 and saying "coming 2018"

then E3 2018 "coming summer 2019'

then about 9 months ago it was delayed until Spring along with Doom...

[DOJI6AHYTbIU]

Originally posted by WithoutWarning:

Originally posted by DOJI6AHYTbIU:

Here I agree. A lot of missed opportunities (not only with Ori and Ku). Therefore, I think that the developers were in a hurry with the release of the game and they collected what was ready and tried to somehow connect it with each other.
  It’s a very sad situation that even DLCs will not really change this, because a lot needs to be changed ...

How many times was it delayed again?

I remember it being shown in E3 2017 and saying "coming 2018"

then E3 2018 "coming summer 2019'

then about 9 months ago it was delayed until Spring along with Doom...

Microsoft (like any other studio) in the first place wants to get as much financial benefit as possible. In the description under the trailer for 2017 there is information "Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusive". I’m not sure that Microsoft tried to "keep the promise." It seems more precisely that they did not really want to compete in the future with larger market players (even with their start-up game on xbox series x Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2).
 As for delays, to be honest I didn’t even know or remember about them. That is, I just watched and waited for the game, but I don’t really remember the specific release dates. With this information, Microsoft’s theory of developers ’pacing is even more convincing.

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

I don't understand where all the hate for the ending comes from, it seems like a natural progression of the story for a sequel to me, Ori was always a seedling of the light tree, I pretty much knew as soon as they all said the tree was dead and gone that Ori would have to replace it, and even then I had my suspicions for a while.

Ori has always been about sacrificing for those you love, it may not be 100% perfect with Ku being injured so early (in my opinion this was because they cut most of the ori and ku content to save time) but the story is still amazing.

[RojoHero]

I'm fairly certain there was a story rewrite at some point. Ku was built up... there was unique animations and gameplay mechanics developed for her. Yet she gets shoved on the bench after 1 level, only to be seen again in cutscenes. This is Ori's adopted sister, the daughter of the main antagonist of the first game... seeing her reduced to the "Damsel in Distress" role is pretty sad.

There's also a lot of confusion, at least for me, about how Light and Dark work... If the Decay is simply a byproduct of the absence of Light, why are the Dark Owls afraid/affected by it like everyone else? A Moki goes to the Silent Forest and is petrified in mere moments. Shriek lives her whole life there, with seemingly no adverse effect besides her deformed birth. Why? Is Dark a force like Light or it it simply the absence of it? Is the Decay part of Dark or something else entirely?

Who's stronger? The Vessel or the Light? Sein makes it sound like the Spirit Tree is big daddy and is the one protecting the forest. If he dies all it lost... except now we know that Sein could have just fused with Ori at any time to make a new tree.... So... why was that never put on the table? Seir talks about how the Light is eternal but the vessels are not. If the Light (Sein and Seir) are the power source... why is it that the Trees seem to be heralded as the "boss"?

Seir straight up punches Shriek in the face... why did Sein just sit there and let Kuro waltz up to the tree and rip out it's eyes?

Why is Ori and Seir going to the Spirit Willow? It's established that it died of old age... it can no longer hold the light. So... why are we climbing the treacherous terrain reviving it again? Seir KNOWS that the Willow is dead! Seir KNOWS that the light requires a vessel. Seir also knows that Ori is a potential vessel. Why are we going to the Willow again? Could have just walked up to Ku, made a tree, saved everyone, and Shriek didn't even have to die. Are we literally going there to murder Shriek and say hi to Papa Willow?

Why is Ku seemingly immune to the light? Her entire family was slaughtered by it... Ku's deformity, the reason she can't fly, was caused by the light that killed her siblings. Why is it that she can be revived by a Wisp/Ori the Tree with absolutely no side effects? Is she just immune to Light as Shriek is just immune to the Decay?

Why are we dragging Naru and Gumo around like cardboard cutouts of relevant characters? Despite all of his powers, Ori did not/could not defeat Kuro. Naru was the one who made Kuro see the light. Gumo could have easily helped build the Glades...

Quick Edit: If the Spirit Willow had children... guardian spirits just like Ori... and died of old age over thousands of years... Why didn't any of the willow's children become the vessel?

My head hurts :(

[DOJI6AHYTbIU]

Originally posted by Bubbles:

I don't understand where all the hate for the ending comes from, it seems like a natural progression of the story for a sequel to me, Ori was always a seedling of the light tree, I pretty much knew as soon as they all said the tree was dead and gone that Ori would have to replace it, and even then I had my suspicions for a while.

Ori has always been about sacrificing for those you love, it may not be 100% perfect with Ku being injured so early (in my opinion this was because they cut most of the ori and ku content to save time) but the story is still amazing.

The point is not entirely in the ending itself, but in how we were brought to it and in the final of the Shriek arch.
If you look at the scene where Shriek flies to his home under the wing of his parents, then it looks completely inappropriate and not logical at the moment. This scene looks much more organic after Seir attacked her before the last "dungeon". After all the damage (both physical and mental) was done for the first time at this very moment. Physical - the mask and horns are broken. Mental - Ori tried to give her the warmth that she had been looking for all this time (but since Seir had hit her before, because of a cause and effect, she recalls the image from the place where the owls were also kind to her, but her elders drove her away owls). It is already clear at an instinctive level that Shriek would fly away under the wing of parents precisely after this moment, in order to “protect itself with comfort”. After all, what's the point of flying away after a lost duel with Ori? At the same time, they show us all this as if she flew there to die (and this makes sense, more precisely, in the way we were provided with this). But when someone dies, at the end there is a small action that shows the transition from a living state to a dead state (and it is not in the game).
 In addition to this, her motivation is absolutely not clear. In the first game, Kuro was the anti-hero and the story was so good because of a conflict of motivation between her and Ori. Kuro tried to save her children, but managed to save only 1 egg and therefore she is trying with all her might to prevent the resurrection of the tree (after all, the tragedy could happen again). Ori must restore the tree, otherwise the whole island will die. Their motivations are very simple and have good conflict and weight. Therefore, in the end, when we already know the whole history of Kuro and see how she sacrifices herself (realizing that she turned into a monster that kills someone else’s child, it also made a tree with her children) it caused true sadness (in a good way). Shriek’s motivation does not conflict with Ori’s motivation at all (even if she hadn’t “killed” Ku ,Ori would still have to be reborn into a tree to save this island). She was born already at the time when the old tree died, because the decay began after his death (if I do not confuse anything). The only "evil" that could be for her is Ku (again, cause and effect), but instead of at least some kind of interaction between them, they simply show us a cliffhanger (Shriek raises his bone-wing), after which we are here find Ku "dead." In order for cliffhanger to pay off, relatively little time should pass (the more time you wait, the more emotional it pays off); therefore, this does not look logical, but looks torn (as if it lacks many scenes).
The ending with rebirth itself does not raise any questions for me, but it is in isolation from the general context. The common complaint of many players is that they gave us this fact at a too late stage of the game and were not particularly prepared for this (with which I partially agree). But this effect is amplified with the end of the Shriek story (because its story is actually completely empty without any conflict with the main characters and it turns out that she became a victim for the sake of the victim).


Quick Edit: I also want to add that throughout the game there is an idea of ​​a family that was started in the first part. We are the only spirit on the new island (and the only spirit in the first game before the final). Naru is the last of its kind. Gumo is also the last of its kind. Ku is exactly the same. Therefore, idea seven worked perfectly, they are all completely different, but find “comfort” and joy in each other (if we take into account the fact that they are all “fossils of their kind”, the effect becomes much stronger). In this game, we are introduced to Shriek, who is the last owl on the new island, also "distorted", which makes her also as unique as the characters of the first game (This does not take into account that the Frog is the "father of the lemurs" and the Spider is the mother and we are building a village, which in itself is a great home for the family). That is, this idea goes entirely through the game with a red thread. Therefore, the finale in which Shriek just flies away BECAUSE THE DRAMA looks too cheap.
 I repeat to the semantic load on the transformation of Ori into a new tree, I have no complaints. But how it came to this raises too many questions because of which you find huge holes and shortcomings in the plot and history, which are much more than in the first part. As such, the number of plot characters has not really increased compared to the first part. Of these, it was only necessary to show the relationship between Ku and Ori (because there are very few of them in the game), Shriek (because she is a completely new character and had to be worked out at approximately the level of Kuro, I don’t think that the developers who made the first game decided to make such a story of the character without any payoff at the end). From what follows the logical conclusion that the developers were in a hurry with the release of the game.


Quick Edit 2: After re-viewing the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd0zbNw1VOg of this trailer, the theory that Microsoft was rushing developers was more than real. A location with a crystal cave (a section with a trolley) did not get into the final game, there is no ability to hit the ground that was in the first part (Stomp). If with regard to the cut-off attack, we can assume that they simply reworked it into an improved hammer blow, then with all the other context it becomes clear that the game was greatly curtailed and the script was rewritten. As a result, the game was assembled from everything that was ready, somehow it was directed so that it made sense and was released in a flash because the publisher was in a hurry (after all, there were already several transfers, and in the future more competitive ones will appear on the market, which will not be particularly profitable in terms of money (and modify the game another year or 2, too, "loss of money" given that it is indie)).